Evilstu's Historical Tinkering

A little more progress on the Ecossais. This hasn’t been as fast as smashing through the generic fantasy armies but I’m quite liking getting back to layer painting.

Trousers and gaiters were done using the Vallejo Black & White paint set box, and deviating slightly from the suggested approach. Base coat VMC70.986 Deck Tan, shade VMC70.821 German Cam Beige WW2, First highlight a 1:1 mix of VMC70.986 Deck Tan and VMC70.918 Ivory, final highlight straight VMC70.918 Ivory. Final look still feels a little beige rather than white but given how bright the rest of the minis are might leave as it presently sits, will see what the result is when the minis are more finished and see if I should dabble further then.

Pack and pack strap was base coated in VMC 70.923 Japanese Uniform WW2, highlighted with a 1:1 mix of VMC 70.923 Japanese Uniform WW2 & VMC70.986 Deck Tan. Shoes and boots were base coated in VMC Panzer Series 70.822 German Camo Black Brown, highlighted up with increasing quantities of the Japanese Uniform/Deck Tan mix, as that was on my palette and I’m lazy…

Also been looking into the Thirty Years War a bit of late. I have been stashing minis away in Black Friday sales etc over the years so decided to get the ball rolling on something 17th century. After all, the 400th anniversary of the Battle of White Mountain is on in November this year. Of course if I miss that I still have a bit of time before the 400th anniversary of Lutzen (no, not that one, the other one…).

Starting point was the ‘Battalia Starter Army’ box from Warlord Games. This box contains six of their standard infantry sprue, each of which allows you to build 8 matchlock armed miniatures and 4 pikemen. Limiting factor is arms and weapons – there is a 5th pike torso on each sprue but no arms to go with. Not to worry these will come in handy. Also included are two ‘command’ sprues, which have 3 torsos and a variety of arm options for captains, Sergeants, musicians (in both drummer and fife flavours) and standards. So using the 5th torso off one of the infantry sprues, the command sprue and the dozen guys on each standard sprue yields a block of 16 pike with 2 sleeves of 12 matchlocks. I’m, basing individually which means I may not have enough real estate to make use of the musket rests (only 2 per sprue but I have some extras stashed) but will see how we go.

Box contents will let you do two of the above, plus 2 blocks of 12 cavalry. The cavalry come with helmet or hat options, a trumpet and standard on each sprue, and a variety of swords and pistols at rest or on the charge. 3 rider sprues and 3 horse sprues per unit (ie six of each of the 2 types of identical sprue in the Battalia box) provides for enough differentiation to prevent the 24 cavalry resulting from assembly from looking the same.

Box also included 2 really nice sheets of ECW flags (I can swap standard models later and get double-mileage out of the units…), plastic multi-bases and 10 Firelock infantry sprues. These sprues contain 1 torso and 2 firelock arm pairings. So using the extra guys from the infantry sprues (and some spares from other projects) I can add some more firelock armed troopers and get them up to a reasonable sized unit.

Finally, to add a third unit and round out the Battalia I assembled a box of Imperial Harquebusiers, again Warlord. Same plastic horses as in the Bttalia Box, but with metal riders. Mostly single piece, just a few metal arms to add, mainly for the standard and trumpeter.

So just need to add in a commander and the first Battlia is ready to march on to the paint bench…